Having in-depth information about a specific cryptocurrency you are interested in investing in can play an essential role when it comes to the overall decision-making process. There are literally thousands of cryptocurrency tokens on offer, and if you are a newcomer into the world of cryptocurrency investments, things can get a bit tricky at first.
Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) are some of the most popular altcoins out there, and as such, they are the primary investment options for either newcomer investors who are about to dive into the world of crypto investments or for people who have invested in Bitcoin (BTC) and are looking for ways through which they can diversify their portfolio.
So if you are curious and find yourself asking, should I invest in Ethereum or Litecoin, today, as a means of helping you with your investment decision, we will be going over both Ethereum as well as Litecoin as a means of helping you pick which option is right for you.
Should I Invest in Ethereum or Litecoin: Explained
Ethereum has been a dominant force within the cryptocurrency sector due to the fact that it is one of the first cryptocurrency projects to introduce smart contract functionality. Learn where to trade Ethereum here.
This, in turn, paved the way for digital money, global payments, and decentralized applications or dApps, as a lot of developers jumped in on the network to develop their own dApps and altcoins. Learn how to transfer Ethereum tokens.
Litecoin was essentially developed as an alternative to Bitcoin and, as such, has many similar features. In other words, Litecoin utilizes cryptography as a means of enabling ownership and the exchange of its native cryptocurrency token, LTC.
There is a hard limit on the amount of LTC tokens that can ever be created, and this limit is at 84 million. It also uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) as a means of enabling anyone to add new blocks to the blockchain and earn new tokens as a reward for doing so.
Due to the fact that each of these projects is unique in its own way, we will compare them across multiple categories as a means of discovering exactly which cryptocurrency project is worth your investment. Let’s dive in.
- Project
Ethereum is essentially this decentralized blockchain platform specifically developed to enable a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to function and verify application code. This is done through its smart contract functionality, which essentially lets users transact with one another without needing any central authority to control this.
Instead, each transaction gets recorded onto the blockchain and is immutable, verifiable, and distributed securely. Participants, as a result of this, have full ownership as well as visibility for all of the transaction data.
It is making the switch towards Proof-of-Stake (PoS) as a consensus mechanism as well. Discover who takes Ethereum.
Litecoin, on the other hand, uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) as a means of adding new blocks onto the blockchain, which is a process that occurs every 2.5 minutes. Its mining algorithm was modified as a means of allowing just about anyone to mine the token.
In 2017, Litecoin adopted what is known as the Segregated Witness technology, which helps cryptocurrencies add more transactions into each block, after which the first Lightning transaction was completed.
- Utility
Ether (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency token used on top of the Ethereum blockchain. Every time a miner verifies a transaction, they get a reward with a portion of ETH as a reward for doing so.
Miners essentially earn ETH in the form of fees for computations that are processed by the network, and these are paid out in what is known as “GAS.” This is a special computational unit. With its Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, this mechanism will shift.
Litecoin (LTC) is the native cryptocurrency token that is used for the Litecoin blockchain. Miners use PoW as a means of verifying the transactions on the blockchain.
An interesting technology that Litecoin implements is Atomic Swaps, which essentially provides interoperability to the blockchain and allows the exchange of different cryptocurrencies without the need to go through an exchange.
- Market Capitalization and Value
Ethereum (ETH) has a market capitalization of $311,685,915,396. Its 24-hour trading volume is at $13,298,651,106, and its circulating supply is at $13,298,651,106 ETH tokens.
As of February 21, its value is at $2,604.07 per ETH token, and it is ranked #2 in terms of market capitalization.
Litecoin (LTC) has a market capitalization of $7,536,073,357. Its 24-hour trading volume is at $720,464,612, and its circulating supply is at 69,688,168.91 LTC tokens.
As of February 21, its value is at $108.14 per LTC token, and it is ranked #20 in terms of market capitalization.
- Community
Ethereum has by far one of the largest communities. On Twitter alone, the project has 2.2 million followers, with tens of thousands of active members within its Discord and Telegram communities.
On the other hand, Litecoin is a smaller project, but not as small as you might initially think. In fact, on Twitter alone, the project has over 923,600 followers. Additionally, it also has solid communities in terms of its Discord and Telegram channels.
Ethereum or Litecoin: Conclusion
With all of this in mind, both Ethereum, as well as Litecoin are solid investment options. What will ultimately help you with your decision is how much you believe in the future of either of these projects, as well as how much you want to invest in cryptocurrencies.
The price difference between these tokens is drastic, and their utility is also different.
Each project features its own native cryptocurrency token, and each of these tokens has showcased a high level of growth since the point in time when they were created.
After going through all of the analytical data and after learning a bit more about each project, hopefully, now you have a heightened perspective of how all of it works and which tokens to invest in.